(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus which allows for information search from items arranged in a virtual space. More specifically it relates to an image processing apparatus which promotes confirmation of information which has been once observed.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, development has been made for creating a visual display of a virtual space through three-dimensional computer graphics (3D CG). A technology with which desired pieces of information can be searched for as a user walks through the virtual space is offered by constructing a database using such a virtual space.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 9 No.198,407, discloses a technology in which the image of a virtual space having a hierarchical structure is displayed on a virtual space display frame and the display of the virtual space is replaced, in accordance with the user's indication of movement, as if the user were flying in the air and observing with a bird's eye view, as if the user were on an elevator going up and down, or as if the user were walking around. This thereby allows the user to search for search targets such as books etc., laid out therein.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 9 No.81,577 discloses a configuration for supporting the user's information walk-through in which access history of the user to accumulated information scattered on the network is recorded in the computer so as to lay out 3D CG objects corresponding to the accumulated information based on the record. This thereby dynamically creates the space suitable for the user's information walk-through by reflecting the history of the user's past walk-through.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 9 No.297,835 discloses a virtual space type database searching method in which operator's actions in the virtual space type database are summarized into summary images of information in the form of a comic strip. When a particular cartoon frame of information is selected from the summary images of information, the visual field jumps to the virtual space corresponding to the selected frame of image so as to allow the operator to restart their action in the virtual space.
However, in the above prior art techniques, since the scenes and/or shapes which have been already viewed could not be checked during moving and searching in the virtual space, the user would have to perform searching by repeatedly viewing 3D images which have been already seen; thus degrading the efficiency of searching in the virtual space.